Modern vehicles are increasingly complex and therefore require highly capable command and control systems. In the face of operational anomalies, brought on by equipment or operational failures, these vehicles require additional capabilities to identify and mitigate against the effects of failures. Vehicle Health Management (VHM) systems complement the command and control systems by helping to address failures and anomalies so that the command and control systems can operate effectively in nominal (healthy) conditions. The VHM system manages the health of the vehicle system, identifying failure states and helping mitigate the effects of these failures so that the vehicle may be returned to its nominal state. Thus, the VHM system facilitates safe operation of the vehicle in the face of failures in the system.
One way in which a VHM system can manage the health of a vehicle system is to determine the consequence of failures in the system. Specifically, when a component in a complex system fails it is desirable to accurately determine all the potential consequences of that failure to effectuate a proper response. These consequences can include direct downstream failure propagations and changes in criticality of other non-failed components.
Changes in criticality of non-failed components can occur in vehicles that include multiple redundant systems. In such a system, the failure of one redundant component can change the criticality of remaining components. For example, in a double redundant system, if one redundant component fails the remaining redundant component becomes more critical to the operation of the vehicle.
Unfortunately, current VHM systems have been unable to effectively determine consequence of component failures in the system. In particular, current VHM systems have been unable to efficiently and accurately determine changes in criticality that can occur as a result of failures in the system. Thus, what is needed is a system and method for determining changes in critically that result from component failure in the system.